


A Shadow Bound

by bluerosekatie



Category: Keeper of the Lost Cities Series - Shannon Messenger
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Angst, Angsty Tam, Book 8: Legacy, Canon Compliant, During Canon, Ethertine, Gen, Hurt No Comfort, Implied/Referenced Mind Control, Mid-Canon, No beta we die like Kenric, Not Beta Read, Rivalry, Spoilers for Book 8: Legacy, Sympathetic Glimmer, The Neverseen (Keeper of the Lost Cities), Whump, kind of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-11
Updated: 2021-03-11
Packaged: 2021-03-18 17:28:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,040
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29986347
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bluerosekatie/pseuds/bluerosekatie
Summary: Tam Song has been captured by the Neverseen, but he doesn't realize to what lengths Lady Gisela will go to make him do what she wants.
Relationships: (IMPLIED), Keefe Sencen & Tam Song, Tam Song & Glimmer
Kudos: 1





	A Shadow Bound

Lady Gisela opened the door, and Tam startled. He slammed the journal he had been reading shut.

“What do you want?” he asked.

“I suggest you keep quiet to your superiors,” she said. “Gethen told me you held some of your thoughts back.”

Tam tugged on his silvery bangs and threw back the hood of the Neverseen cloak he wore. “If you expected me to share everything, you would make me trust you first.”

“Trust is unnecessary for your work,” Lady Gisela said. “All you have to do is follow orders.”

“And if I won’t?” Tam asked. _She’s going to do something. Hopefully it’s something to me and not to Linh._

“You will,” Lady Gisela said. She smiled, and the skin near her lips stretched tight with the movement. Her dress swished as she entered the room and approached Tam. “Come with me.”

Tam ducked his head and stood up, his shadow growing in the dim light of the moon jar on his desk. He kept his hood down, even when Lady Gisela led him through the rock-walled hallways of the hideout. The few other Neverseen members they passed had their hoods up, hiding their faces behind a veil of shadows.

_Shadows I could remove, if I wanted to,_ he thought. _But I’m sure they’d punish me or Linh for it._

Lady Gisela rapped her knuckles against another door, and Tam heard a voice from inside say, “Come in. I’m ready.”

When she opened the door, light like a searing silver flame flared from within the room. Tam blinked, but the shape was seared into his retinas.

“As I told you before,” Lady Gisela said, “you’re not nearly as valuable to me as my son. However,” she gestured to the source of the light, which illuminated another Neverseen member in the room, a dark silhouette against the wall, “I would like to think you will be useful to me.”

Tam studied the room. The other Neverseen member’s cloak was pulled tight against her body, and as his eyes passed over her hood, she dipped her head slightly. 

“Who are you?” Tam asked. “Glimmer,” she said. “Show me your wrists.”

Tam frowned. He lifted one hand and pulled his sleeve back.

“Both of them,” Glimmer said. She picked up the source of the light. Tam squinted at the light and managed to make out two large rings, easily the right size to fit around his wrists. He rolled his other sleeve back.

“These will ensure you follow your orders,” Lady Gisela said. “And in case you’ve gotten any ideas, once Glimmer seals them, only she can remove them. And she’s devoted to my cause. Nothing will convince her to disobey me.”

Glimmer stepped up beside Tam and slid the bonds over his wrists. The silvery light hung loosely around his wrists, and where they touched, unnatural cold -- _almost like the cold of shadowflux_ \-- seeped into his skin.

“It’ll be easier this way,” Glimmer said. “I promise.”

Then her hands flared with orange, burning light. It jumped into the bonds, which shrunk until they bit into his skin. Searing light and cold sank into him, throwing his face into sharp relief and making his eyes water from the brightness. Tam’s thoughts muddled, his shadowvapor poisoned by the icy light.

“What are you doing to me?” he shouted. He shut his eyes, but the pain remained. “Why?”

Lady Gisela looked to Glimmer, who shrugged. “I’ve never seen it done,” Glimmer said. “I didn’t know it would…”

“Pain can often convince where nothing else would,” Lady Gisela said. “Well done.”

Tam’s arms trembled. “Well done? Well done? If you thought this would make me do what you want, you’re dead wrong.” He raised one arm and collected shadowvapor around it. It was a thin defense at best, and the light of his bonds shone through the bolt.

“You will not attack us,” Lady Gisela said.

As Tam tried to gather more shadowvapor, the icy pain from the bonds crept through his arms. He tried to thrust his arm forward and launch the bolt of shadows, but it wouldn’t move. His arm was frozen. He shook with effort. “Stop this. I’ll let go of the shadows - just let me move.”

Lady Gisela nodded, and the pain receded. Tam lowered his arm and let the shadows dissipate.

He crossed his arms. “You’re just going to keep me locked up like this -- frozen whenever I do something you don’t want -- forever?”

“Not forever,” Lady Gisela said. “I need a Shade and a Flasher for one specific task.” “What?” Tam asked, his voice hoarse. “What do you need so much you’d take control of me just to get it done?”

“My son’s legacy is coming for him, whether he sees it or not,” Lady Gisela said. “In order for him to complete it, his potential must be unlocked. Your ability to control shadowflux is just what I need to do this.”

“Great,” Tam said. “So you won’t even tell me what this is for.”

“You will need to learn more before I can explain what I will have you do,” Lady Gisela said. “But I assure you, once you have done it, I will let you go.” Her eyes shone in the light of Tam’s bonds, but they held none of Keefe’s mirth in them.

Glimmer had said nothing, still staring at the bonds she’d sealed around Tam’s wrists. “If you want to leave, you’ll be able to.”

“And if it doesn’t work? Will you keep me here as your little pet until I get it right?” Tam asked.

“It will work,” Lady Gisela said. “I promise you.”

Tam looked down at his bonds. He pulled his sleeves up to them, then covered the bonds with the sleeves of his cloaks. But out of sight was not out of mind -- his wrists still burned with the cold light, a permanent reminder.

Or at least as permanent as Lady Gisela needed.

Lady Gisela opened the door to let him out. “Go study. My son’s legacy depends on it.”

Tam slammed the door and stomped through the halls back to his room.

_Good luck with that,_ he thought. _If shadowflux is involved, Keefe’s life depends on me getting this right._


End file.
